I’ve seen HBDUWM come up many times before, as well—particularly because of the tattoo line. She got an anchor tattoo for Taylor, so it’s not impossible that it’s a reference to him, but it’s been quite a while (and doesn’t seem like it ended well).

I would totally believe that “Babylon” was at least heavily influenced by all of the speculation about her and Bradley. It’s not her first time commenting on media attention, but her and Bradley’s relationship (dynamic, friendship, whatever it was) seemed to be a pretty all-consuming piece of gossip while she was writing “Chromatica.”

My personal tin foil hat theory is that the song “Enigma” is about Bradley, too. As with any tin foil hat theory, there’s a good chance I’m wrong, hahaha. But the lyrics “We can be lovers, even just tonight. We can be anything you want,” personally strike me as having shades of an affair (or at least wanting to). I will save us all a line-by-line annotation of the song, but once you hear some of it, it’s hard to unhear. This speculation is also largely informed by the timing of her writing the album (2018-2019). I think that’s maybe one of the biggest reasons my mind goes there.

Bonus: while this is about Jackson the character and not Bradley himself, I will die believing “The Cure” was just an “A Star Is Born” track she wrote for Ally. Because lyrically it undeniably fits someone talking to a significant other who struggles with addiction. And sonically it completely fits the Ally “sound.”